Challenge

Red Gold, Inc. is located in Orestes, Indiana, and is the nation's largest privately owned tomato processor.  Because the tomato processing operation is seasonal, the process water treatment system is shut down between the end of January through May of every year.

The seasonal operation does not allow enough time for the  bio-mass to build up sufficiently enough to support the process water volumes at the large canning facility. 

Prior to 1999, Orestes process water treatment facility consisted of:

• one holding pond for the collection of suspended solids, totaling 7 million gallons
• one holding pond strictly for hydraulic detention, approximately 30 million gallons
• two holding ponds equipped with inefficient surface aerators, 10 million gallons
• and one polishing pond.

New regulations on ammonia nitrogen (NH3), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) made the current treatment process inefficient, as well as the existing detention basins inability to hold the volume of water associated with planned production requirements.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management was willing to allow Red Gold a three year compliance period, giving them enough time to phase in meeting the new requirements.

Solution

Red Gold, being proactive, decided to incorporate a state-of-the-art package treatment facility into the Orestes plant, within six months- two and a half years ahead of the compliance period.

After distibution of project requirements and information to suppliers, Red Gold considered sequencing batch reactor technology, oxidation ditch technology, and complete mix extended aeration systems.  Red Gold decided on the mix plug-flow aeration treatment system with internal clarifier from Davco Products.    Davco Products would have less than 8 months from the purchase order release to deliver and install the new system in order to meet that year's harvest campaign.

The decision to go with this particular system and supplier were based on:

1. Economics
2. Ability to meet requirments effectively and efficiently
3. Delivery schedule
4. A sister plant's experience with a Davco plant installed six years prior
5. Familiarity of USFilter Davco Products with the Red Gold process stream

The new system was designed to treat a flow of 500,000 gallons-per-day (gpd).  Incoming levels included BOD of 2000 milligrams-per-liter (mg/l); TSS of 500 mg/l; and TKN of 220 mg/l.  The effluent of the new system met new requirements of 22 mg/l of BOD, 26 mg/l of TSS, and 4.5 mg/l of NH3.

Results

"Overall, the plant is performing well, with NH3 levels of 1 mg/l or less and BOD/TSS levels far less than those required to be compliant.  Properly maintained and serviced, the system can dependently be expected to deliver good quality effluent that will meet and exceed all the quality parameters established by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's expectations," says MIke Herrmann, Red Gold's Director of Engineering.

The new treatment process from Davco Products has been successful in accomplishing the task of handling the bio-mass that is constantly acclimating, since the plant is operating on a seasonal basis.